Tag: friends

This past weekend, I had my cousin and her boyfriend from Sweden visiting, and also my aunt from Washington. Naturally I wanted them to feel welcome to my home, and know how happy it made me that they decided to come for visit. I live a rather simple life. So how could I make them feel welcome? I thought about it for a couple weeks before they arrived.

I decided to go for a combination of things. When they arrived I gave them a tour of my house, garden, property, and introduced my animals (dog and horses.) It was probably ten years ago since I saw this part of the family, and we had a lot of catching up to do. It truly was wonderful to see them all.

That first night, my cousin and I cooked for everyone. It was fun. It gave us a chance to talk. For me it was a treat to speak my native language. Even though I feel that I can make myself understood in English, my native language add more color and emotion to a conversation.

My family had enjoyed my photos from Lassen Volcanic National Park on social media. I asked them if they wanted to go there. I go there several times a month. It almost feels like second home. They were thrilled for the opportunity to see the park themselves. The photos in this post is from our visit there.

I really enjoyed giving them the tour of the unique volcanic landscape in Lassen. We entered through the northwest entrance, at Manzanita Lake, and took the 30 mile long, Highway 89 through the park. We stopped at many vista points to enjoy the views, talk about the landscape, and of course take photos. We enjoyed a picnic lunch along Kings Creek.

It was a perfect day! Around 80 degrees, and very comfortable weather, happy people, and awe-inspiring vistas. We took Highway 36 back, towards Red Bluff (CA.) On the way we passed a fire.

We finished the first day by going to my favorite restaurant in Red Bluff, Casa Ramos. Casa Ramos is a chain, but the Red Bluff location definitely is quiet a bit better than the other ones. (The other ones are nice as well.) I’ve been going there for years, and tasted everything on the menu. I usually bring guests there. Everyone loved the food, the service, and the cozy atmosphere.

The next, and final day I took them to see three waterfalls, and another amazing restaurant (actually in the top 100 list, in all of the US.) That will be another post. To be continued..

What do you like to do when you have faraway guests visiting for more than a day? Do you give them a taste of your world? I guess that was what I was trying to do. I know that they were curious to know what I’ve been up to, and what my life is like. That was what I tried to show them; my home, garden, animals, hiking, and our amazing corner of northern California. Tell me about how you like to treat your guests. How do you make them feel your love?

I’ve been boarding my horse Ghost (the horse in the background,) at a training facility for the first four months of our budding friendship, to get a good start on our relationship. We just leased a new house (we slept in our new house for the first time this weekend,) with property, and plenty of room for horses. It was finally time to bring Ghost home. I did that earlier last week.

I’ve spent a lot of time carefully selecting a friend for him. There’s so many things that has to be just right, to make it a good match for everyone – the new horse, Ghost, and our human family situation.

My hope was to not only find a new family member, but to make a difference in a horse’s life, that really needed a home. It’s easy to just go and buy a horse, but there’s so many out there, good horses, that for different reasons find themselves in bad places. Through the years I’ve fostered around 20 abused horses, that I’ve helped nurtured back into good health, physically and emotionally. This time my intention is to keep the horse for life. Therefor I really needed to make a good decision. I wanted the horse to be gentle enough for my 5 year old daughter to be around, and preferably be able to (eventually) take my weight as well, so that I can work with the horse. (A horse that only has kids riding it, sometimes forgets some of its training/manners.)

After looking at several horses, I found the mare in the photos, two weeks ago. After spending some time with her, I purchased her on the spot. My intuition is usually right. Yesterday we brought her home, FTB Fancy Traditions, stable name Fancy. She is a 12 year old, Quarter Horse. Fancy have a solid foundation, but experienced some rough times for a while. I can’t wait to spoil her with attention. She needs to gain some muscle weight, but she has the sweetest personality (and excellent cutting blood.)

Ghost and Fancy hit it off from he start. By looking at the pictures, you would think that they’ve been friends for a log time. In fact they just met for the firs time, ten minutes ago, when I took these. It rained all day yesterday, but I thought you’d like to see some photos anyways. I’ll take some better later. Fancy is gentle enough for my daughter to brush, and ride by herself. We (all of our two, and four legged family,) couldn’t be happier.

I hope your weekend was nothing short but amazing! Have a wonderful new week!